Golf club head attaching means



Nov. 12, 1968 1. REUTER, .1R

GOLF CLUB HEAD ATTACHING MEANS l INVENTOR `JOHN REUTEQ,JR.

Filed Dec. l, 1965 mmm, @MM45/MW dttgjs.

United States Patent O 3,410,558 GOLF 'CLUB HEAD ATIACHING MEANS John Reuter, Jr., 615 E. Broadway, Phoenix, Ariz. 85040 Filed Dec. 1, 1965, Ser. No. 510,802 3 Claims. (Cl. 273-80.2)

ABSTRACT F T11-IE DISCLOSURE A golf club construction particularly adapted for woods with steel shafts wherein the head and hosel are provided with a bore which is of greater diameter near the sole of the head than at the top of the hosel, and a rigid pin is inserted into the bore inV a manner to extend upward beyond the hosel so that the hollow bottom of the steel shaft can be secured to the protruding end of the pin. The bottom of the bore is closed with a plug and the -wedging action produced by centrifugal force as the club is swung serves to hold the head tighter on the shaft without splitting the upper end of the hosel.

This invention relates to an improvement in the means for securing tubular metal shafts to the wood heads of golf clubs.

Present-day golf clubs having 'wood heads use a tapered hollow steel shaft wherein the taper runs downwardly in the direction of the club head so that the slenderest part of the shaft is at the lowermost part thereof. The wood head which is secured to the slender part of the shaft has an lupwardly tapered portion lgenerally known as the hosel in which a downwardly tapered opening is made to receive the end of the similarly tapered shaft. Means are then provided for securing the shaft to the head against separation of these golf club elements when the club is swung into and through a golf ball. The upward taper of the 'Wooden hosel produces a progressively thinner section of the -wood at the hosel which terminates in an almost paper-thin edge. This section is inherently -weak and may readily be fractured by transverse forces imparted to the hosel by the shaft. Since the thinnest portion of the shaft is substantially at the hosel, said thin section, as compared to the remainder of the shaft is most susceptible to bending stresses imposed thereon by the club head which is attached thereto. These bending stresses act transversely of the hosel.

Thus, since the weakest section of the wooden hosel surrounds the thinnest and hence most flexible portion of the shaft, a combination of structures is produced which is inherently weak and susceptible to fracture. Furthermore, the downward taper of the shaft promotes, rather than resists, separation of the club head from the shaft as the result of centrifugal force created in the head when the club is swung.

The principal object of this invention is the provision of an improved connection between a wooden golf club head and a shaft therefor which eliminates bending stresses in the wooden hosel of the club head.

A further object of this invention is the provision of a means for securing a wooden club head to a tapered steel shaft wherein centrifugal force in the club head, developed when the club is swung, tends to hold the club head more fnmly on the shaft.

As a more specific object, this invention has within its purview the provision of a connecting means for joining a wood club head to a tapered steel shaft wherein the actual connection between the shaft and connecting means is disposed above the club head hosel rather than at the heel of the club as in prior designs, and a wooden Patented Nov. 12, 1968 ice club head may then be secured to a steel shaft in the same manner as an iron club head.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view partly in section of a tapered steel shaft and wood club head of a golf club assembled by the connecting means of this invention; and

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the parts of the club head of FIG. 1.

By way of lgeneral description, this invention comprises a connecting means of rigid, single-piece construction, such as a steel pin which is upwardly tapered and passes thro'ugh a similarly tapered opening through the heel and hosel of a wood club head. The rigid connecting means extends upwardly above the hosel and into the end of the downwardly tapered hollow steel shaft of the club which terminates just above the hosel. The shaft is secured to the upper end of the connecting means by an epoxy adhesive, the holding power of which is suicient to insure that the connecting means will not separate from the shaft, even when subjected to the centrifugal force developed by the severest swing of the golf club. The rigid connecting means is recessed, or even made hollow, to a degree to give proper 'weight to the club head. Small additions to the weight of the head may be made by inserting an appropriate amount of weighting material into the recess.

Referring now to the drawings for a more detailed description of the invention, the ylower portion of a golf club of the wood class is shown, said club comprising a steel shaft 10 which is hollow and is downwardly tapered in any suitable manner as, for example, by the stepped method commonly in -use at the present time. At the lower end of the club is a Wood head 11 having an upwardly and rearwardly extending hosel 12 the sides of which are upwardly tapered to blend into the contour of the steel shaft 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the lower end 13 of shaft 10 terminates above the upper end of hosel 12.

Shaft 10 and wood head 11 are connected by a rigid pin 14 preferably made of steel or other rigid material of similar strength. Said pin is comprised of a lower portion 15 and an upper portion 16, both of which are preferably round and upwardly tapered. The upper portion 16 of the pin 14 is stepped with respect to the lower portion 15 and has a base which is of less diameter than the upper end of the lower portion 15 to form a shoulder 17 against which the lower end 13 of shaft 10 is made to abut. Preferably, the diameter of the upper end of the lower portion 15 is substantially equal to the outside diameter of the lower end of shaft 10.

Hosel 12 and the heel of wood club head 11 have an opening 18 passing therethrough which is concentric with the hosel and which is tapered in the same direction and degree as the taper on the lower portion 15 of the pin 14. Thus when club head 11 is assembled with pin 14 by pushing pin 14 upwardly through opening 18, a

wedge fit will be produced which will become tighter,

the higher pin 14 is pushed into opening 18. This means that should head 11 be subjected to centrifugal force through pin 14 in a direction tending to move said head downwardly 'with respect to shaft 10, head 11 will only wedge itself tighter on pin 14 rather than tend to loosen and fly off as in prior yconstructions of golf club heads.

Lower end 13 of shaft 10 is flared outwardly, that is, is formed with a taper which matches the taper of upper portion 16 of pin 14 and hence, insofar as the effect of centrifugal force thereon is concerned, is constructed in the manner of the prior club heads. However, with upper portion 16 rigid and made of met-al and the lower portion 13 likewise made of metal, the use of a tapered upper portion 116 in a flared or belled lower end 13 of the shaft 10 minimizes or completely eliminates the problem of manufacturing tolerances .and in addition, adapts the assembly of the pin 14 to the shaft 10 to assembly methods presently used with iron clubs. Such tapered end 16, for example, may be substantially identical in size and degree to the tapered metal hosel of an iron golf club head, such iron golf club head being assembled to a shaft substantially identical to shaft by inserting the tapered end or hosel of the club head into a -belled or flared lower end of the shaft. The use of the metal pin 14 with its tapered exposed upper portion 16 thus makes the assembly of a wood club head to a tapered steel shaft substantially identical to the assembly of an iron club head to its shaft, and makes the relatively fragile hosel of the wood club head equivalent in strength and rigidity to the solid metal hosel of the iron club head.

For purposes of adjusting the balance of an individual club, pin 14 is made hollow from its lower end upward (as shown at 19) as far as is necessary to achieve the desired weight -for the club head. The pin may in fact be hollow and made from a thick-walled tube which is swaged or turned to produce the desired taper, and then machined to form the step 17. Individual variations from the ideal weight may be adjusted by adding a weighting material 20 to the bottom open end of pin 14. To this end pin 14 extends almost to the end of opening 18 and is then closed with a plug which is subsequently ground off to blend with the contour of the Ibottom surface 21 of the club head 11.

The means by which pin 14 is secured to head 11 may comprise simply a suitable cement such as an epoxy cement which produces a very strong -bond between `the head and pin. Other means for securing the head to the pin may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

It is understood that the -foregoin g description is merely illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention and that the scope of the invention thereore is not to be limited thereto, but is to be determined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A golf club comprising a head having an upwardly exending hosel and a -bore extending through the head land hosel, said bore having a greater diameter at the sole of the head than at the top of the hosel, a rigid plan disposed in said bore and extending through the middle and upper regions of the head, through the hosel and beyond to provide an upper exposed end of said pin, said pin having a -form to fit closely the -bore at the head of the club and at the top of the hosel, a club shaft having a hollow lower end in snug overlapping relation to said exposed end of said pin, and means securing said club shaft lower end to said overlapped upper end of said rigid pin.

2. A golf club as described in claim 1, said head and hosel being made of Wood and said hosel decreasing in diameter from the head upward.

3. A golf club as described in claim 1, said pin terminating short of the sole of the head, and a plug in the bore at the hole closing the bore and the end of the pin, said plug being adhered to both the bore and the pin.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,339,638 5/1920 Velchansky etal. 287-20 XR 1,589,707 6/ 1926 Kraeuter 273-805 2,015,253 9/ 1935 Buhrke et al. 273-802 2,299,735 10/ 1942 Birkhofer 273-808 3,176,987 4/ 1965 Johnston 273-802 X RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

P. E. SHAPIRO, Assistant Examiner. 

